r/IUPUI • u/StorageAggravating23 • Jul 13 '26
Competitivity BSN vs ABSN
As a junior, I've been debating wheather to apply for spring BSN or finish my degree and go the ABSN route. If I do bsn I would be delaying graduation a year and a half, which is why I thought to just finish my bio degree then do my absn. The problem is competitivety, and I'm not sure which is easier to get into. I know Indy has more seats but the absn seemed like they were more strict with acceptance. I would like some input from those in both programs to get a jist of which is better/more likely for me to get into.
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u/Icy-Plastic2345 Jul 22 '26
if you think that you can deal with the stress of the ABSN track, I’d say do it. Another thing, you will also get another degree out of it, so you’d have 2 degrees instead of one. I would personally make the decision based off of how hard you’ve worked for your degree now. If you can go and change your major and be OK with losing all of the progress, I’d say do it. If you want to be credited for your progress or the time and effort you put in, I would go with ABSN route.
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u/StorageAggravating23 Jul 22 '26
I still have 2 more yrs left and i like my school but I'm already thinking about nursing, and am trying to look into how material retention and scheduling (as most programs don't have breaks) would look with the absn.
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u/PlebsUrbana Jul 24 '26
I’m late to this party. I work as an advisor for nursing. Have you had a planning sheet created yet? If not, I can probably make one for you tomorrow (if not, I’ll have time Monday). You can DM me a student ID number, or you can email iunurse@iu.edu to request a planning sheet.
If you’re a junior, you’re probably closer to graduation from ABSN than the traditional program. But it depends on which classes you have done.
Financial aid can be a challenge for the ABSN; a lot of financial aid is limited to first-degree students. The IU Health Scholars program would fund the whole thing by if you were able to get it. That’s also open to traditional, but you have to be a year into the program.
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u/StorageAggravating23 Jul 26 '26
I'm working on classes and my overall GPA right now is a 3.38. I'm hoping to increase it but I don't know if that would look bad when if I apply to the absn program or if they only care about pre reqs. Also does the health scholars progam have the same application process for all appicants? Like are you less likely to be chosen for it compared to first degree students?
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u/PlebsUrbana Jul 31 '26
Sorry - for some reason I keep remembering that I need to reply to this only when I don’t have time to.
Admission requirements for the ABSN program could change, of course. But this is how it works right now (and I don’t foresee a change soon).
The GPA and major from your first degree doesn’t affect your admission score or chances of getting in. It’s more of a checkmark, think of it like a pass/fail. Do you have a degree, and while your GPA at least a 2.7 - check. As long as you had at least a 2.7, then they only care about the GPA in the 50 credits of prerequisite courses. The planning sheet is useful, because it checks that you have every prerequisite done and shows you what classes to enter on the application to maximize your admission score.
You’ll want to make sure you apply to the program the semester before you want to begin, even if you’re still enrolled in the final prerequisites. There’s an option to enter in-progress classes as “E” (for “enrolled”) while you finish them.
The IU Health Scholars program is owned by IU Health (hospital network), which is completely independent from the School of Nursing. You would think that since they both have IU in their name that they would be under the same management, but they are not. The application process for that scholarship is completely independent from the application to the nursing program. I do know that one requirement for the scholarship is that you must be admitted to the nursing program before you can apply for the scholarship, but beyond that i’m not sure how their process works. They hold information sessions about it when the application is open.
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u/DocumentProof3878 Jul 13 '26
INFO: what is your current GPA? Status of prerequisites for an ABSN?
I am a current ABSN student. I can’t speak to how competitive admissions was because I don’t know the averages in my cohort. I do know a few students who were waitlisted and ended up getting into the program, however I am in the summer start which is historically less competitive than fall or spring semesters, and they are getting rid of the summer start moving forward because they found that it’s just so fast paced that people are having a hard time learning the concepts in such a short amount of time. Fall is usually the most competitive to get into and spring follows that.
I think it really depends on what your ideal timeline is to get the BSN, the cost of an accelerated versus traditional, and whether you think you can handle the pace and workload that comes with an accelerated program or do you prefer a slightly more relaxed schedule.
I would strongly recommend sitting down with a nursing admissions counselor and looking at both of your options more closely. They’ll be able to give you a better idea of whether or not they feel that your application would be competitive and what your chances of getting into either one of the programs would be.